Dusty tales of Americana

“I see Heaven’s nail and hammer/ nailing holes in the sky,” is one of the many aesthetic lyrics sung by M. Ward in his new album, Migration Stories. Ward’s style for his ninth solo record radiates an expansive tracklist with classic instruments of plunk wisely blended together amongst modern synthesizers.

His opening song, “Migration of Souls,” is a spacey, heartfelt lullaby about the untethered travels of his grandfather from Mexico to California. These influences are undoubtedly relevant to the immigration catastrophe while displaying the jejune divinity of the American Southwest. “Heaven’s Nail and Hammer” echoes melodies of vintage guitar twangs and slow lulls of an old-timey stand-up bass, converging the rustic past with the contemporary debonair.

The mellow tune of “Steven’s Snow Man” inspired by Wallace Steven’s poem, “The Snow Man,” is perfectly balanced with the upbeat track, “Unreal City,” dedicated to one’s sudden awareness of their own mortality. “Unreal City” chronicles life in Los Angeles, California, where a looming doom of earthquakes approaching is at an all-time high. Yet, this song conveys a search for peace in the uncertainty in a world of chaos. “Angels come to paint the desert nightly” is another majestic phrase Ward sings in the song, “Along the Santa Fe Trail,” capturing the quintessential colorfulness of the “purple veil[ed]” shadows, gleaming moon, and rainbow sky casting on the “stardust scattered all along the highway.” This song is actually a cover of the singing cowboy, Jimmy Wakely, in the 1940s cowboy-action film, Santa Fe Trail.

Not only is this record musically bewitching, but the lyrics replicate those of folklore poetry, as heard in “Coyote Mary’s Travels.” Migration Stories embodies topics of childhood reminiscence, haunting fears and spiritual transcendence. Ward is a wordsmith who masters the art of using lyrics and melodies to evoke empathy and imagination in the minds of the listeners. While avoiding being sanctimonious, Ward nevertheless uses his voice as a platform to expand views of emotional and physical migration movements in a time where apathetic headlines of immigration plaster television news screens.

This alt-country album of defies genre confinements, as it branches out to folk and blues Americana, leading listeners back to simplistic sincerity and interconnectedness.